Kucinich: ‘I’m No Longer Running For President’

ABC News’ Jennifer Parker Reports: Returning to his hometown of Cleveland, presidential dark horse Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, announced he is abandoning his second White House bid to concentrate on fighting for his congressional seat that is up for grabs in November.

"Today we are re-committing our energies," Kucinich said Friday. "I’m directing my energies to being re-elected to the Congress of the United States."

"To those who supported this campaign with their energies and their hearts, I want you to know that we are transitioning the presidential campaign to a movement based on integrity, and based on practical ways we can affect policies on a local and national level," he said, announcing the launch of a new group called ‘Integrity Now.’

"I’m no longer running for president, but I am intent on saving our nation," he said, directing supporters to a website called integritynow.org.

Throughout his campaign, Kucinich trailed badly behind his Democratic rivals, raised little money, and was recently shut out of Democratic debates because of his long shot status.

Kucinich, who made an unsuccessful bid for the White House in 2004, ran on his longtime opposition to the war in Iraq, and advocated the creation of a federal "Department of Peace."

However news about his candidacy was overshadowed by news about his assertion that he saw a UFO; that President George W. Bush may need mental "care"; and attention devoted to his second-wife, Elizabeth, who is 30 years his junior.

The former Cleveland mayor has been an Ohio congressman since 1997, but is facing challenges from local politicians who charge that Kucinich’s quest for the White House, and his failed effort to impeach Vice President Cheney have left the people of his district neglected.

In an "urgent personal appeal" Wednesday to his campaign supporters sent out by e-mail and released on YouTube, Kucinich said, "Right now I’m under attack by corporate interests, most of them from the city of Cleveland, who have an agenda that has nothing to do with the people of my community, nor with most people in this country."

"And so what I’m asking you to do is to help me stay in Congress, so that I can continue to represent the people of my community, the state of Ohio and the United States of America," he said in the appeal.